A new consensus statement published in Nature Reviews Endocrinology proposes a set of 12 characteristics that can be used to identify metabolic-disrupting agents - chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and environmental hazards that increase the risk of metabolic disorders like diabetes and obesity.
In short:
- These “key characteristics” include the ability to alter pancreas and gastrointestinal tract functions, promote insulin resistance and inflammation, and disrupt the immune system’s function in metabolic tissues, among other effects.
- All of these characteristics impact multiple metabolic pathways, potentially contributing to a number of negative health effects.
- Metabolic disruption is not currently a primary consideration in the testing or risk assessment for any pharmaceutical products or environmental chemicals.
Key quote:
“This approach will enable a more comprehensive mechanistic understanding of how environmental chemicals and other agents disrupt metabolism and cause adverse outcomes.”
Why this matters:
Metabolic disorders are a growing public health challenge across the globe, with the population affected by diabetes projected to grow to 1.31 billion by 2050 and obesity adding more than $170 billion to adult healthcare costs annually in the US. The role of metabolic-disrupting agents in these global epidemics is largely overlooked, but these key characteristics help create a framework through which they can be more easily identified, studied, and addressed.
Related EHN coverage: See more on metabolic-disrupting chemicals from Dr. Jerry Heindel, Director of Healthy Environment and Endocrine Disruptor Strategies (HEEDS - a part of Environmental Health Sciences) and one of the authors of this paper:
- Op-ed: Untangling the causes of obesity
- Opinion: Researchers and clinicians acknowledge the role of chemicals in spurring obesity
More resources: HEEDS has coordinated three comprehensive scientific reviews on obesogens, a subcategory of metabolic disruptors, and is collaborating with several of the authors of this paper to encourage more research on their potential clinical effects.
La Merrill, Michele et al. for Nature Reviews Endocrinology. Nov. 29, 2024
